Is there an app that can change the world?

So how did I design it ?

As always, I followed human-centred design process: research, empathy, ideation and usability testing.

Research

– Who else operates this space?

Interestingly, this product doesn’t have many competitors as it is a brand new concept. However, during my interview, the interviewees mentioned that when they wanted to perform a trade online, they would use platforms such as Airtasker, Gumtree, Meetup and Facebook.

Competitive analysis (Airtasker, Gumtree)

Competitive analysis (Meetup, Facebook)

– How about other Peer-to-Peer Apps?

Peer-to-peer marketplaces are really booming right now. One of the reason is they bring people and/or businesses together online to deal with each other directly without having to go through a slow, expensive middle man. — CurrencyFair

Give & Get will be the quickest and cheapest service provider, owns no staff. It will work by bringing peer-to-peer marketplaces to our everyday life.

– What did the users say?

Started from asking the right questions. I spoke to 10 interviewees and 3 of them are freelancers.

Empathise

– Time to meet our primary users

Based on the affinity map, I created 3 personas. Then I combined Personas & Customer Journey Map to show what each personas think, do and feel in each stage.

John Watson(A busy white collar): I want to get the service quickly and cheaply.

Mrs Hudson (A retired lady): I want to contribute to my community. I love the feeling of being needed.

– User needs VS Business needs

Based on the Customer Journey Map, all the personas shared the same problems: need to be quick, worry about safety and want more social networking. Those were the main user needs we identified.

Also at the beginning of the project, I felt it was very hard to explain to others what this APP was actually doing. Then I realised that the biggest challenge of this project was to make the APP easy to understand. So apart from users needs, it is equally important to consider the business needs as below.

Ideation

– Features prioritisation

The goal was to prioritising all the features into a product roadmap. I ideated the opportunities based on Customer Journey Map. Then I used the left matrix: Users needs vs Business needs (low to high), to select these features with high user needs and/or high business needs. Then I leveraged these features by Value VS Efforts, which helped to identify what should be done in short term and long term.

– Product Roadmap

So aligning with the identified user&business needs, each stage has a main focus: being quick, being safe , using loyalty system to maintain users and being social.

What does it look like?

– Logo, Slogan, Concept Design

– Make the APP understandable

As mentioned before, the biggest challenge of this project was to make the APP easy to understand. Here is what I did to achieve this goal.

a. 6+ iterations on the home screen

In order to make the home screen easy to understand, I did a bunch of usability testing from paper prototype to final digital version.

b. welcome screen & 1 min video introduction

As video is a engaging way to introduce the APP. 1 min introduction video will be played once the App is open, with welcome screens.

welcome screen & 1 min video introduction

c. Tutorial for first time users

Users mentioned that tutorial is needed for the first time use. Also it is important to educate users the concept about Gitcoins (the digital currency used on this App).

Tutorial for first time users

– Hi-Fi Prototype

Get services by browsing services around

Service reviews / Service history/ Profile information

Reflection

Start broadly and keep narrowing down based on the double diamond model. I started this project with a very broad and vague idea: how can I make people’s life easier, and what is more, make the world a better place. Then, based on my interview, interviewees mentioned that they needed help in daily tasks. They preferred to ask friends or families for help but more often than not, friends and families can’t help them in a timely manner. So the brief was narrowed down to deal with daily tasks during emergency through the lens of peer-to-peer services. A clearer brief had helped me achieve a better focus in research.

Business needs are equally important as user needs, especially at the early stage of a product life. A product cannot survive by only being user-centric. It is also indispensable to incorporate business strategy into the UX process, like how to get the first group of users, how to obtain and maintain Daily Active Users (DAU), and make profits in a long term.

The Presentation

About the Author

I am a graduate from General Assembly, Melbourne, User Experience Design Immersive (UXDI) programme. I am currently actively seeking for a job. Before attending this programme, I has worked as a product manager for 2+ years.

My design works can be viewed in my portfolio. Also, contact me by yinzeng.ux@gmail.com

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